


Reset

by cyren2132



Category: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Genre: Gen, Kindness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 10:17:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16324337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyren2132/pseuds/cyren2132
Summary: Jumanji has a way of changing people.





	Reset

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Major](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Major/gifts).



The engine roared in Bethany’s ears, dulled only by the bulky headset she wore. The controls vibrated in her hands and she could feel the rumble of the seat beneath her. She thought she’d be more nervous. A year ago, she definitely would have been. But that was before detention. Before Jumanji. Before Alex.

“You doing okay?” His voice was tinny as it crackled through the headset.

“Yeah. Yeah, great!” 

He smiled at her. It wasn’t the smile she’d gotten used to in the game. Jefferson’s smile had deep dimples that rested right at the corners of his upturned lips. Alex had to smile big to catch the slightest indentation back on his cheeks. His eyes were different, too. From a wide-eyed brown to a narrow blue. But behind both faces lived the same warmth. The same joy. The same life.

Alex was Jefferson and Jefferson was Alex. 

A new voice crackled over the headphones.

“Cessna two-seven-charlie, runway three-romeo clear for takeoff, west departure approved.”

Alex nodded at her, nudging her shoulder with his own.

“All you, Bethany.”

“Cessna two-seven-charlie, acknowledged,” she said, entirely unable to hide her grin. She’d studied the reading. She’d done the simulators. But it just wasn’t the same. Alex talked her through the takeoff. She might have been fine without it, but his voice, even filtered through the headsets, was calming and comforting as they left the runway beneath them and entered open airspace.

Alex had been a big help to all of them after Jumanji. After all, he’d had 20 years to adjust to what had happened and how the game changed him. And it had changed him. It’d changed all of them. Sure, they were still a nerd, a jock, a prom queen and an outcast, but they were also friends. Friends who had experienced a giant thing together and come out the other side with new interests and perspectives and attitudes.

Spence, Fridge and Martha managed all right. It just didn’t hurt them to be a little more confident, humble and empathetic. But Bethany had lost friends. She wanted to experience the world. Live life. Have adventures. Sure, take super cute selfies while she did it, but the key phrase was “doing it.” All of her friends were perfectly content to do nothing and had little patience for new hobbies.

She didn’t realize the drift at first. It wasn’t until she heard Jemma, Buffy, and Haley talking about a birthday party she hadn’t been invited to.

“Well, we just didn’t think it would be your thing anymore.”

“I mean, no one was planning to jump out of an airplane or climb up a mountain.”

“I just don’t think we have that much in common anymore, Bethany. Sorry.”

And just like that, her best friends since the third grade walked out of her life. She’d been walking aimlessly after school. Not ready to go home. Nowhere else to go. She just put one foot in front of the other, eyes downcast staring at the sidewalk ahead of her. A shadow approached and she moved to the right, making room for the jogger that passed her by, only to stop and turn around, legs still pumping in place.

“Bethany?” It was Alex. He jogged back over to her, concern written all over his face, and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, you okay?”

“No one understands,” she said softly before falling into his arms. Long overdue tears spilled from her eyes as he held her, steered her back to his house and handed her a steaming mug of tea. 

“Afraid my tea-making skills aren’t quite on par with my margarita mastery,” he said with a smile that made her laugh as she wiped her eyes. She told him everything, then. All the things she wanted to do. All the excitement she craved, and all the ways it separated her from her peers. 

“Game made you a bit of an adrenaline junkie, huh?” Alex said with a smile. “Me, too.”

And now here they were, staring out the window of airplane, watching the horizon tilt as she banked left. She hadn’t stopped smiling since the wheels left the pavement, and when she stole a glance at Alex, he was smiling, too. But something about him looked far away, lost in good memories that had replaced the bad of most of his Jumanji flight attempts. Like the day he proposed to his wife just before jumping out the side door with a parachute strapped to his back. Or the hot air balloon ride on their 10th anniversary.

It made Bethany so happy to see him happy. There was a time she might have been remorseful. Jealous even. In the game, her attraction to him — Shelly’s really — had been obvious, but even outside of it, with all the things that were different, she’d still managed to crush on him for a hot minute.

 

But the more time they spent in the real world, the more those feelings began to morph into a deep friendship that she wouldn’t trade for anything. After all was a grown man with a wife and child and a life, and she was still figuring out who she was. A student. An Insta-queen. A hiker. A camper. A skydiver. Sometimes even an overweight middle-aged male cartographer.

And in about 40 hours, a pilot.


End file.
